Gilmore Girls: Forgiveness and Stuff
January 23, 2025 5:33 PM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe
Emily disinvites Lorelai from Christmas dinner, so Rory goes without her. After Richard suffers a health scare, they all meet up at the hospital. Lorelai gives Luke a hat.
Hello hello everyone! Over ten years ago, we had a regular Fanfare thing going for this show... for nine episodes. I'd never watched it back then, and am in fact on my first watch now, spurred by a desperate need for escapism from the real world. So please, come on and join me as we journey through the land of quirks, kindness, questionable fashion choices, rapid-fire banter, non-stop pop-culture references, and undiagnosed ADHD that we call Stars Hollow!
I aim to keep this up as long as I can manage - wish me luck!
*******
This is the Season One Christmas Episode (as I understand it, only the first two seasons have Christmas episodes, so this constitutes half of them.) Emily is still pissed at Lorelai for the fact that Rory stayed out all night with Dean. Lorelai is still pissed at Dean for the same thing. Both seem to get over it by the end, because Richard's health emergency puts things in perspective. Luke serves Lorelai an adorable but disgusting "Santa Burger" because she's missing out on the apple tarts which are her favorite part of Christmas dinner with her folks, and then he closes up the diner to drive her to the hospital. While there, basically everyone has a one-on-one conversation with each other, save for Lorelai and Richard, whose wordless exchange is an achingly good moment of acting from Lauren Graham and which is probably the part of the episode which will stick with you the most.
A.V. Club review - David Sims
Women in Revolt review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" - Tony Bennett
"Christmas Wrapping" - The Waitresses
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" - John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band
"Thanks for Christmas" - XTC
Random Guest Star Watch: Jane Lynch as the Nurse at the hospital who Emily is arguing with.
Hello hello everyone! Over ten years ago, we had a regular Fanfare thing going for this show... for nine episodes. I'd never watched it back then, and am in fact on my first watch now, spurred by a desperate need for escapism from the real world. So please, come on and join me as we journey through the land of quirks, kindness, questionable fashion choices, rapid-fire banter, non-stop pop-culture references, and undiagnosed ADHD that we call Stars Hollow!
I aim to keep this up as long as I can manage - wish me luck!
*******
This is the Season One Christmas Episode (as I understand it, only the first two seasons have Christmas episodes, so this constitutes half of them.) Emily is still pissed at Lorelai for the fact that Rory stayed out all night with Dean. Lorelai is still pissed at Dean for the same thing. Both seem to get over it by the end, because Richard's health emergency puts things in perspective. Luke serves Lorelai an adorable but disgusting "Santa Burger" because she's missing out on the apple tarts which are her favorite part of Christmas dinner with her folks, and then he closes up the diner to drive her to the hospital. While there, basically everyone has a one-on-one conversation with each other, save for Lorelai and Richard, whose wordless exchange is an achingly good moment of acting from Lauren Graham and which is probably the part of the episode which will stick with you the most.
A.V. Club review - David Sims
Women in Revolt review - Lindsay Pugh
Soundtrack:
"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" - Tony Bennett
"Christmas Wrapping" - The Waitresses
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" - John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band
"Thanks for Christmas" - XTC
Random Guest Star Watch: Jane Lynch as the Nurse at the hospital who Emily is arguing with.
Gilmore Girls was one of my pandemic watches. I have thoughts about it. But I missed the first season because my wife started watching it while we were quarantined from each other and I never went back to catch up, so I will read these with interest.
posted by rikschell at 4:44 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
posted by rikschell at 4:44 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
Yeah, so far I'm up through S3E2, and I had to start up these fanfare threads just because this hits that weird sweet-spot that something like Buffy or TNG does for me, where the flaws in the series are very apparent, but I love it not just in spite of those flaws, but in part because of them. The characters are very often incredibly frustrating, but I still love them. The politics/morality of the show hopscotches across the line between progressive-for-the-early-aughts and almost reactionary. There's obviously somebody on the staff with awesome musical taste, but the show only sporadically makes use of them. Chilton makes no damn sense at all, almost even as just a concept. Some of the best characters (e.g. Lane) are woefully underused, but that makes it that much more exciting when they actually get a story (see also: Rachel and Tim in Justified, which is probably the only comparison I'll ever make between those two shows.)
Like rikschell says in the "thoughts" link, it's great to watch while knitting. Like in Buffy or TNG, the dialog is stylized to the point of being alienatingly stilted at the beginning, but as the actors get used to it (and the viewer gets used to it) it starts to work, and its consistency in its own weird universe becomes an asset. (Deadwood and basically anything by Aaron Sorkin do this as well, though Deadwood's dialog style is hypnotically successful from the jump, even if you still have to kind of "learn" how to parse it.) The stakes are deliberately, almost perversely low, in a way that also works in the show's favor by making it that much cozier.
I've come across a lot of vague warnings about how things will go off the rails in the final season (which apparently ASP wasn't involved in) and also possible in season 6, so I'm a little worried, but we'll get there when we get there. For now, this is very enjoyable as an escapist time-capsule.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:20 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
Like rikschell says in the "thoughts" link, it's great to watch while knitting. Like in Buffy or TNG, the dialog is stylized to the point of being alienatingly stilted at the beginning, but as the actors get used to it (and the viewer gets used to it) it starts to work, and its consistency in its own weird universe becomes an asset. (Deadwood and basically anything by Aaron Sorkin do this as well, though Deadwood's dialog style is hypnotically successful from the jump, even if you still have to kind of "learn" how to parse it.) The stakes are deliberately, almost perversely low, in a way that also works in the show's favor by making it that much cozier.
I've come across a lot of vague warnings about how things will go off the rails in the final season (which apparently ASP wasn't involved in) and also possible in season 6, so I'm a little worried, but we'll get there when we get there. For now, this is very enjoyable as an escapist time-capsule.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:20 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
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I think it's a moment where the show figured out what it was doing and what the relationships between all the core characters were.
Like, no, maybe don't start here but also, this is a good capsule of why Gilmore Girls is so loved (even despite ... uh, many things).
I will participate in a GG rewatch. I have many thoughts. Most of them good. Some of them ... not so much. But I'm fair.
posted by edencosmic at 5:59 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]